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How To Do Product Research Like Steve Jobs

The late Steve Jobs is known for mentioning his lack of faith in focus groups. He once said:

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

His insight is useful, but a lot of people take it to mean that Jobs didn’t believe in listening to customers. That’s not the case. Here’s what else he had to say on the subject:

“That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it.”

So what’s the deal? Should you or should you not listen to customers?

Let’s find out.

The difference between “self-reporting” and “actual” behavior

The reason Mr. Jobs didn’t believe in focus groups is that most of the time what people say they’ll do isn’t what they’ll actually do. This is the difference between “self-reporting” and “actual” behavior.

Let’s look at an example.

Company A is trying to decide whether or not they should build a new product. Before they start, they want to find out if people will buy or not, so they decide to do focus groups and surveys.

Through their research, they find out that everyone really likes the idea and says that they’ll definitely buy. It’s a super cool idea. Everyone loves it.

So the company goes into development and builds the product. After it’s finished, they release it into the market, but a funny thing happens. Hardly anyone buys. Everyone said they would, but when it comes time to actually part with their money, people aren’t willing to do so.

What happened?

What happened is that there was a difference between what people thought they wanted and what they actually wanted, and the real test comes when people have to pull out their wallet to buy something. It’s easy to say that you will ahead of time, but will people really do it when the time to purchase comes? Maybe, maybe not.

This is why actual behavior is more important than self-reported behavior and why experiments are more useful than focus groups and surveys.

But this brings up another question: Does this mean you should never listen to your customers?

Absolutely not. Let’s talk about why.

When you SHOULD listen to your customers

Instead of just thinking that listening to customers is a bad idea, we need to look at some situations where they should be given an ear, and this has to do with pain points and frustrations.

Company B is in the same market as Company A and is interested in building a similar product. However, instead of asking people what they want, they ask what frustrations they have with the current products. They ask questions like:

What’s your biggest frustration with this product?

What are you struggling with the most?

What issues are you having with your current business model?

By asking these questions, Company B identifies pain points, and addressing these pain points can be used to identify where there is an opportunity for innovation. It can also be used to optimize website copy and selling points.

After doing these focus groups and surveys, Company B develops a different product than Company A. Once it’s launched, they have more success, not only because they listened to customers in the right way, but also because their sales copy is more in tune with the frustrations that people have. Customers visit their site and think, “Wow, it’s like they’re reading my mind.” Why? Because they asked the right questions and knew when and how they should listen to customers.

So the next time you’re thinking about doing a focus group or survey, take a minute to decide what you’re trying to figure out. Are you hoping that your customers will tell you about the next big product innovation, or are you attempting to learn what frustrations they have and where their pain points are located?

Based on Mr. Jobs’ advice, you’re better off searching for an answer to the second question.

So what about you? When do you listen to customers and when do you not?

DON’T MISS OUT

Joe Putnam is the Director of Marketing at iSpionage, a competitive intelligence tool that makes it easy for PPC advertisers to download their competitors’ top keywords, ads, and landing pages. He also recently wrote a free guide titled The Top 10 PPC Mistakes and How to Fix Them.

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Steve Jobs was a legend. His intelligence in computers and marketing has made Apple a very successful company today. I think learning from his traits would be of great help to fellow marketers out there. Thank you for posting this online. It is of great help. Great article by the way Joseph!

Excellent post Joseph. Thank you.
The adoptation of self-reporting results as the basis for a business decision to proceed with the development of a product is often related to that business owner’s personal view of what the customer should need. He’s convinced that this new gadget is the best thing since sliced bread and when he does his market survey he’ll most likely only hear what he wants to hear.
You’re absolutely right, knowing the difference between self-reprting and actual behavior is the key to success with a new product development.